From all the descents and ascents, a person must understand that they have no end and only he can put an end to them, by turning to the Creator with a genuine plea to receive the will to bestow.

If in ascent, one justifies the descent, which now gives him greater recognition of the ascent and greater gratitude to the Creator, then one defines the states only by the opportunity and extent of thanking the Creator.

The Creator gives all the states, and a person must determine his attitude to them. And he shouldn’t worry about being in a low state, but only about how much he aspires, precisely thanks to this state, to the Creator, to the Creator’s help.

In any state, if a person thinks that he is on the path to the spiritual goal—then it is so. At least because he recognizes that “There is none else besides Him” in his state as well. But he can add greater yearning to it—and be more grateful…

In reality, the whole world exists in a perfect state. Only in relation to us does it manifest itself as flawed in our senses, to the extent of our corruptness.From Twitter, 7/11/19

Question: What should our attitude be toward negative manifestations of the Creator if it seems improbable to us that something positive will come after that? Or vice versa?

Answer: If I am working hard right now and have two hours left until the work day ends but I know that a wonderful evening awaits me: I will come home, take a shower, dress smartly, and go out with a beautiful girl, is the time that I suffer working hard really suffering for me? No. It is already tinted by the light, by the pleasure that I will receive in the evening.

This is called the Ohr Makif (surrounding light), which is shining to me now from the future. Therefore, today I cannot feel the suffering. Suffering is felt not because I do not have today, but precisely because I do not have tomorrow.

Question: If I do not see the future, then I cannot see the next stage in which a positive face will be revealed?

Answer: This is another matter. How can I ensure that, although I do not see the next step, I am sure that it exists and that it is kind and good for me? In this case, you have to create a group that would support you in this. Embrace the friends and go forward.[247644]From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/24/19

Two major earthquakes — the strongest in decades — rattled Southern California in the last few days. An extreme hailstorm hit Mexico. Meanwhile, Alaska experienced record high summer temperatures and across the Atlantic, an unprecedented heatwave gripped Europe, triggering wildfires and causing emergency health alerts.

While we humans feel helpless under these hardships, it is precisely at the human level, the greatest and most influential in the entire system of nature, where it is possible to bring about balance on the planet. How? By upgrading the quality of human relations. Doing so would have far more positive impact on our planet than climate treaties and ecological campaigns could ever have.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord has been criticized by the international community with claims that the action ignores the extreme urgency of tackling the problem of climate change.

But I concur with President Trump that cleaning the ecosystem does not touch the crux of the matter, even though many people believe it to be the panacea. Billions of dollars are slated to be invested in measures that are destined to fail to have any positive ecological effect. Instead, funds should be assigned to education to build more harmonious relations between people, the realization of which will manifest in the creation of a better world in every respect.

How can improving human relations have a positive effect on the ecology? We can understand how by looking briefly at the four levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. Every subsequently higher level is more powerful than and controls the level beneath it. Therefore, to change the trajectory of nature as a whole to a positive course can only be accomplished from the human level, the most developed and pivotal of all. For the time being, human impacts on the system are negative, but they can be transformed into positive ones. We must understand that modification of the natural system doesn’t work as is commonly thought, by acting to save the ecological balance, whether it be by saving trees or certain animal species, stopping the pollution of oceans or the air, or myriad other actions we might devise in order to try to be more ecologically friendly. No such actions will help the environment because they do not touch the fundamental cause of its disturbance.

Where then is the root problem with the ecology? The problem is with human beings, or more precisely, with how we relate to one another. Because of our innate human ego, our desire to enjoy at the expense of others, we step on everyone and everything — including nature — in order to do so. Therefore, in order to bring about a new level of ecological balance all we need to work on is repairing connections at the human level itself.

Even if tomorrow the whole of humanity stopped polluting the environment, halted burning fossil fuels, or avoided using pesticides, we would nevertheless continue to see ecological disasters coming at us from every direction because above all the other ecological levels of nature, human relations — the most influential aspect of nature — would remain broken. Our exploitative, manipulative, and abusive relations toward each other would continue to cause negative ripples throughout all levels of nature, creating a negative feedback loop upon us as nature’s negative reaction to human input.

If instead, we create positive emotional connections to bring balance between us and nature, wouldn’t we nevertheless still have to do the many recommended ecological actions in parallel?

It may come as a surprise, but no. Why? It’s because nature, from a higher level, would take care of balancing all these phenomena itself. The principle here is that nature’s governing higher level is able to correct all corruptions of its lower levels. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this principle is called “love covers all transgressions.”

Since we currently have corrupt attitudes toward one another in which we relate to each other through a consistently egoistic lens — self-benefit at the expense of others — we cannot fix anything at the lower inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels because we simply input our egoistic attitude into the system and it feeds back negatively upon us. By investing into the human level alone, i.e. in positive human connections, we also activate the quickest and most dynamic change possible: the moment we cause a positive change in human relations, the lower levels of nature will experience immediate positive effects.

How fast and far must we move to save the planet and ourselves? Do we all need to reach harmonious relations right away, or is it enough for us to have a tendency toward positive connections? If I only start moving toward the goal of “loving your friend as yourself,” as remote as it may look, then even by making the first tiniest step toward it, I already impact a change in the entire natural system. Why? It is because my attitude changed.

By changing my attitude toward nature, i.e. by wanting to relate to it globally and integrally, as a single unified system, and with a loving and caring attitude, then even though I only slightly set off a trigger in that new direction, I nevertheless activated the entire system toward the direction of positive unification. No more than that is demanded of us.

We need only deal with human relations. The lower levels of nature will then all adjust and balance with us when we harmonize our connections to each other. Therefore, all we need is the kind of education and influences that will set us on course to achieve positive human connection in order to be able to enjoy a harmonious life balanced with the whole system of nature.[249379]

Remark: When Baal HaSulam found the Ari’s book The Tree of Life,he was very happy and was full of hope: “Finally I found it!” However, as your teacher Rabash recounted, he did not know that only after 20 years would he be able to understand what he had found and would begin to comprehend it.

It is not easy for a person to hear that all this will start to penetrate him in 15-20 years.

My Comment: No, it is not a problem. It is a natural and necessary condition of attaining the upper world because you have to build the elements to sense it in yourself, its awareness and attainment.

It is not easy because it is born in us and accumulates in small pieces. This is how our sensual and intellectual apparatus works, that is, the heart that feels and the mind, which evokes definitions and concepts. Therefore, this combination of two systems, sensual and thinking, we cannot comprehend. Our world does not have this.

In music, in art, in anything in our world, there is no clear connection between a sensation of understanding and feelings, how one depends on the other.

The connection between them occurs precisely in Kabbalah. That is why it takes so much time.

But it does not matter. It is important that you build this correct conjugation in yourself between sensation and understanding, in order from sensation to influence understanding and from understanding to influence sensation. This is the structure of the soul, and you need to build it in yourself.

Gradually, it is created in you, only it takes some time. So what? You are all mostly young. Even if there are elderly people among us, I assure you that they will have time to reach the level of the upper world, eternity, and perfection in this lifetime.

No one is given Kabbalah to simply touch on and stop there. If a person came to Kabbalah, if he heard about it, then it means that in this lifetime he can realize this opportunity. Everything depends on his efforts.[247609]From the Lesson in the Russian Language, 3/10/19

New Life 1116 – Can We Control Our Lives? Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Are we deceiving ourselves when we try to control the situations around us without controlling ourselves? The idea of letting go of control is not serious or worthwhile if it is done without discovering the higher power within a group of ten people and giving the group control. We learn about this higher system of management and supervision from the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah teaches us to let go of control through implementing the rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” When the power of love dwells among us, it organizes everything and we attain true freedom.[247926]From KabTV’s “New Life 1116 – Can We Control Our Lives? Part 1,” 6/4/19